DO WE LIVE THROUGH THE  FINAL PROPHECIES NOW ?

WHO IS WHO IN THE BATTLE FOR FALSE MESSIAH OR AGAINST HIM?

THE SECRETS OF ISLAMIC ESCHATOLOGY

“One must not let oneself be misled: they say ‘Judge not!’ but they send to Hell everything that stands in their way.”

― Friedrich Nietzsche, The Anti-Christ

When legendary and a bit rude and brutally honest  philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote his book “The Anti-Christ” in 1895, it was considered as an offend to a whole Christianity and its basic principles.He was making the  great analogies of human being in the heart of religion and he insulted almost all values of that belief, settled in the society he was addressing to. Comparing the Christianity with pity excuse for laziness and absence of  real power, he also named priests as poisoner and slanderer and he was focusing on empowering the man, who would stand up against slavery to fake morality and institutionalized religion. His leading term ” The Anti-Christ” or ” The Anti-Christian” hasn’t been the apology of demons and satanism but rather the voice of weak and muted people, stuck in rules from the God who Nietzsche had problem with to accept.

Many years later, it seems that old bad “The Anti-Christ” is coming again among us, threatening to our peace and bringing us the darkness. If you are a believer, you know that it must be the period of the False Messiahs when many come and claim they are the right one, your Savior:

“For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many.You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end.…”(Matthew 24:5, 24:6) 

This should present the End Time, when fake prophets are misleading people and when knowledge is replaced with ignorance and the thinker is in the shadow of the clown.The dangerous years of violence, conflicts, hatred, evil seed all over the world. It directly goes on the problem of  Antichrist:

“He will be a master of deception and will become arrogant; he will destroy many without warning.”( Daniel 8:25) 

Paul gets more into details:

“He will use every kind of evil deception to fool those on their way to destruction, because they refuse to love and accept the truth that would save them. So God will cause them to be greatly deceived, and they will believe these lies. Then they will be condemned for enjoying evil rather than believing the truth.” (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12) 

The final battle between god and evil is described in Revelation:“And I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs leap from the mouths of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. They are demonic spirits who work miracles and go out to all the rulers of the world to gather them for battle against the Lord on that great judgment day of God the Almighty.”( Revelation 16:13-14)

However we look at on this,the signs of the End Time have existed in every crucial historical moments of this civilization. The Bible warns that Armageddon will come  and after a battle, the new world will be reserved only for those who had faith in the hardest times, believing in Him. The struggle between justice and injustice is old as the humanity. Clashes are something which is happening every day and I assume that one day it will culminated and break the weak balance. What about the  fake prophets?As far as I am aware of the evolution of the mankind, so called messiahs have always followed the rhythm of the world and dynamic of the cultural and religious patterns. People chose by themselves to be opinionated or even  fooled, not only by other people but also by information and things. I simply can reflect the Holy Bible darkest scenarios in almost every chapter of world’s book of defeats and victories. That is the price of religion, it is timeless. It can be exposed and imposed in every moment and everywhere, interpreted as we will.

Dajjal. One word in Islam which immediately intrigued my curiosity and imaginary. If Christian eschatology offers Antichrist and End Time, the Islamic  eschatology follows the line too and introduces us with the term of Al-Masīḥ ad-Dajjāl (لمسيح الدجّال), the False Messiah, the Deceiver, Islamic evil hero who is claiming he is the Masih, the Messiah before the important  Yawm al-Qiyamah (Day of Resurrection). The deceiving Messiah is a Qur’anic false prophet:

“Allah’s Apostle(صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم) stood up amongst the people and then praised and glorified Allah as He deserved and then he mentioned Ad-Dajjal, saying, ‘I warn you of him, and there was no prophet but warned his followers of him; but I will tell you something about him which no prophet has told his followers: Ad-Dajjal is one-eyed whereas Allah is not.”(Hadith – Bukhari 9.241, Narrated Abdullah ibn Umar )

and once more:

“Allah is not hidden from you; He is not one-eyed,”, and pointed with his hand towards his eye, adding, ‘said, ‘While Al-Masih Ad-Dajjal is blind in the right eye and his eye looks like a protruding grape.”(Hadith – Bukhari 9.504, Narrated Abdullah )

Now it is important to analyze the complete paragraph from the Hadith, so we can compare the both religions and visions the give:

“Allah’s Apostle  (صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم) mentioned of the Dajjal one day in the morning. He sometimes described him as insignificant and sometimes described (his turmoil) as very significant (and we felt) as if he were in the cluster of the date-palm trees. When we went to him (to the Holy Prophet) in the evening and he read (the signs of fear) on our faces, he said: 

     We said: Allah’s Apostle (صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم) you mentioned the Dajjal this morning (sometimes describing him) as insignificant and sometimes very important, until we began to think he was present in some (nearly) part of the cluster of the date-palm trees.

     So he said: 

     We said: Allah’s Apostle (صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم) , how long will he stay on Earth?

     He said: For forty days, one day like a year, one day like a month, one day like a week, and the rest of the days will be like your days.

     We said: Allah’s Apostle  (صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم) will one day’s prayer suffice for the prayers of the day equal to one year?

     Thereupon he  said: 

     We said: Allah’s apostle (صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم) how quickly will he walk upon the earth?

     Thereupon he (صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم) said: Like cloud driven by the wind. He will come to the people and invite them (to a wrong religion); they will affirm their faith in him and respond to him. He will then give a command to the sky: there will be rainfall upon the Earth and it will grow crops. Then in the evening, their pasturing animals will come to them with their humps very high, their udders full of milk and their flanks distended. He will then come to another people and invite them. But they will reject him so he will go away from them; they will have a drought and nothing will be left with them in the form of wealth. He will then walk through the desert and say to it: Bring forth your treasures. The treasures will come out and gather before him like a swarm of bees. He will then call someone in the flush of youth, strike him with the sword, cut him into two pieces and (make these pieces lie at the distance which is generally between the archer and his target. He will then call (that young man) and he will come forward laughing with his face gleaming (with happiness).

     It will at this very time that Allah will send Christ, son of Mary. He will descend at the white minaret on the eastern side of Damascus, wearing two garments lightly dyed with saffron and placing his hands on the wings of two Angels. When he lowers his head, there will fall beads of perspiration from his head, and when he raises it up, beads like pearls will scatter from it. Every non-believer who smells the odour of his body will die and his breath will reach as far as he is able to see. He will then search for him (Dajjal) until he catches hold of him at the gate of Ludd and kills him. Then a people whom Allah had protected will come to Jesus, son of Mary, and he will wipe their faces and inform them of their ranks in Paradise. It will be under such conditions that Allah will reveal to Jesus these words: I have brought forth from among My servants such people against whom none will be able to fight; you take these people safely to Tur, and then Allah will send Gog and Magog and they will swarm down from every slope. The first of them will pass the lake of Tiberias and drink out of it. And when the last of them passes, he will say: There was once water there.”(Hadith – Muslim #7015, Narrated An-Nawwas ibn Sam’an )

As we can see, in Islam, Jesus will be some kind of helper to the Mahdi. So, who is Mahdi? Mahdi is, according to the believes of Muslims, some kind of spiritual and world ruler, the opposite of Dajjal and someone who fights against the evil forces, trying to set up the new world order, based on justice and virtue. Islamic religion expect only from Mahdi to be the final Caliph of the Islam and also the final Caliph of the whole civilization, because Islam will be the only religion accepted as one and right. What impress here is definitely pointing that Mahdi will be not only a spiritual leader but also a political and military leader, because he has to stand up against the Dajjal, who will be also the political, military and spiritual ruler on the other side. The Mahdi will work on establishing the new world  based on Islam and :“The Mahdi will offer the religion of Islam to the Jews and Christians; if they accept it they will be spared, otherwise they will be killed. ( Ayatollah Ibrahim Amini Al-Imam Al-Mahdi: The Just Leader of Humanity) So, Islamic Mahdi will focus on converting the Christians and Jews, but what will do Dajjal then? Who is who? If Islamic Mahdi will kill Christians and Jews who dont accept Islam, then Dajjal who is an enemy of that Mahdi is the friend of Christans and Jews or? There is also one infamous Hadith about the battle between Jews and Muslims:

“The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews. ” (Hadith -#6985)

“The Gharqad” (apparently the boxwood tree) is presently being planted  by Jews in Israel so it should symbolize that Muslim people wont have peace until they don’t take Israel.

But what we should do with Jesus, when Islam admits that Jesus will be the helper of Mahdi. On the another side, Christianity claims that Antichrist will make a new religious worship movement which will be against Christians and Jews. Who they refer to? Christianity almost identifies the Islamic white house rider, the Mahdi with its own Antichrist:

“The basis for the symbolic picture of both the Antichrist and the Mahdi on a white horse is the sixth chapter of the Book of Revelation.  Here the Apostle John is describing his vision of the release of the events that mark the beginning of the end-times.  The picture is of Jesus holding a scroll – on the outside of the scroll are seven wax seals.  As each seal is broken a specific and distinct end-time event is released:

1. Peace is taken from the earth
2. Famine
3. Plagues and death
4. Persecution and Martyrdom of God’s people
5. A great earthquake
6. The wrath of God”

The same could be said for Islam. Maybe its Dajjal is nothing but the western civilization as the Antichrist for Christians could be the Mahdi, someone who threats to convert them or to kill them.

The problem with the religions is that their meaning and accepting  depends on individual approaches. When I read all of above mentioned, as an agnostic, I find myself almost entertained but I can guarantee that the importance of those religious claims for real believers have almost the MAKTOOB power. There is no discussion about it. It is an absolute truth and absolute truth doesn’t let any doubt.

Unfortunately, the current global political situations and the rise of terrorism open the ground for religious dreams and nightmares. Christians can conclude that Antichrist is already among us and that could be ISIS(DAESH) and its Caliphate as well as intentions  to rule the world through Islam. They can be so fanatical and to conclude that is an Islamic Mahdi, arrived. Where is the white horse then? I guess this Mahdi loves Toyota jeep then.Muslims can accuse Western to produce Dajjal in ISIS(DAESH) to confuse Muslim believers and to make them worship the wrong and to betray the Mahdi. We shouldnt forget that some radical imams talked about the US as about the Sheitan.  Back and forth. The whole circle. Real Messiah vs. Antichrist. Mahdi vs. Dajjal.

 It is interesting to see that Islam signs of Dajjal sees in the next phenomena: dishonesty as a way of life, falsehood, usury and bribery, innocent’s blood would be shed, pride will be taken on act of oppression, the rulers will live on corruption, the scholars will be hypocrites, there will be no any shame, respect. The Damascus will be ruined. We can detect many of signs nowadays. Does it mean that Dajjal is among us and who is he if he is not Antichrist or as Jews believe, Armilus?

Every religion has its angels and demons, its own parameters for fear and courage. Every religion offers eschatology as the crucial ingredient of the belief. Without it, religion would be turned into epic poems. But who would stand up against the world behind the world when none can check it and claim it for sure? Everything could be and not be. If it is, then the prophecy perfectly works. If it is not, they do not work now but they will do work later. Then we come to the dogma and we welcome the fanaticism. If doesn’t work now, I will make it work. The human being is such a kind that can make things which even the devil would be ashamed of.

The stories about good and evil are a necessary layer of the society and its moral. When fear vanishes, deep human feeling for savagery comes out and the world is getting into the end time without Dajjal, Antichrist or Armilus.

The solution for this world is not waiting for a Savior to come and solve all our problems or for Imam Mahdi to kill the Dajjal but for civilization to take a responsibility for chaos which hasn’t been made by some imaginary evil from up or underground, but from our own bad motives. Insisting on apocalyptic ideas and hiding behind religious legend is an excuse for tragedy to be kept on and for greedy interests to be feed, comforting the wide masses that Mahdi and Messiah will come and bring justice. Even if they come, if we keep fighting each others and keep hating our differences, they will leave soon, knowing that the mankind doesn’t deserve a second chance at all.